Why did the ancients say that the heavens are round and the earth is square?

Updated on history 2024-02-22
35 answers
  1. Anonymous users2024-02-06

    The sky is round and the place is actually a kind of "heaven and earth are flat", that is, our intuitive impression of the sky and the earth. There are many words in our lives that can reflect this intuitive impression. For example, "Horizon."

    When we look at things in the distance in the sky, we will feel that it is relatively low, and the sky and clouds in the distance seem to be next to the horizon. So the sky seemed to us like a big bowl upside down above our heads. This is called "the circle of the sky".

    "Horizon", especially in the Central Plains region that we called in ancient times.

    The middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River are mostly plains, and there are few mountains. For example, my home is at the junction of Shandong and Henan and Hebei, where there are mountains.

    Not even hills. The Great Plains really looks "endless" in all directions, as if only distant trees and villages block the view. The idea that the earth is flat is very common because this is the phenomenon that everyone sees.

    However, scientific findings tell us that this is not the case, and that we see only a small part of the world around us, because we live on the surface of the earth. 】

    Why did the ancestors say it was a "place"? Maybe it's because the fields are always divided into small squares, the so-called well field system.

    From this small part, it extends to the earth and becomes a round place. This concept also extends to the five costumes in ancient Chinese politics, with Wang Ji.

    Center, draw large squares in all directions. Of course, it may also be related to the "Quartet". Anyway, our ancestors chose this model.

    Many people are saying that "the sky is round and the place is round", not literally. In fact, this is when we understand the more essential scientific knowledge, and find that the intuitive impression of the ancients is wrong. When the ancients began to think deeply, they also found that there was something wrong with this model, such as Zengzi.

    When it comes to related issues, I feel that such a heaven and earth can't be hard. But I didn't find a more suitable solution, so I diverted the topic and said that "the way of heaven is round, and the way of the earth is square", without giving a better explanation or options. Zengzi's way of thinking.

    It's actually very bad. If you make a mistake, you make a mistake, anyone can make a mistake, and he actually let the mistake continue. Therefore, later generations have not corrected the "round heaven and earth" (Gaitian theory), even after the emergence of the "Hun Tian Theory", the Chinese's understanding of the universe is still "Hun Gai and Gai are used".

  2. Anonymous users2024-02-05

    Because the horizon is invisible, it is like a square, and the sun and moon alternate every day.

  3. Anonymous users2024-02-04

    The heaven is round and the place refers to not simply seeing the sky as round and the earth as square. It's a kind of Tao idea. That is, the heavenly way is round, and the earth is square.

    The sky is yang, and the earth is yin. Heaven and earth are different, yin and yang are different, and the circle is different. Yin and yang depend on each other.

    And the Tao has been a native religion of China since ancient times.

  4. Anonymous users2024-02-03

    In ancient times, it was believed that the sky is round and the place has an end.

  5. Anonymous users2024-02-02

    Because the ground that people can see is a flat surface.

  6. Anonymous users2024-02-01

    This is what people said in ancient times.

  7. Anonymous users2024-01-31

    That is, the heavenly way is round, and the earth is square. The sky is yang, and the earth is yin. Heaven and earth are different, yin and yang are different, and the circle is different. Yin and yang depend on each other.

  8. Anonymous users2024-01-30

    In ancient times, it was believed that the earth had an end.

  9. Anonymous users2024-01-29

    You can't see the horizon, it's like it's square.

  10. Anonymous users2024-01-28

    This is because in ancient times it was believed that the earth had an end.

  11. Anonymous users2024-01-27

    Because in ancient times, people determined it through the observation of the naked eye, so there was the illusion that the sky was a pot lid like a button on the ground.

  12. Anonymous users2024-01-26

    Because in ancient times, people believed that the earth was square and could walk normally, and the sky was round, and it was buckled to the ground like a pot.

  13. Anonymous users2024-01-25

    Because technology was not very developed in ancient times, there is this erroneous statement.

  14. Anonymous users2024-01-24

    Referring to the sky means the sky, and circles refer to round objects。The sky and round objects share common characteristics. The sky alternates day and night, wind and rain, and is unstable; Rolling round objects are also unstable.

    So, the celestial circle refers to instability; The ground refers to the earth, and the square refers to the cube. The earth and square objects also share common characteristics: the topography of the earth has not changed much over the centuries and is very stable; Square objects don't roll and are also stable.

    So, place is stability! A country needs stability, a company needs stability, and a family needs stability. Stability trumps everything.

    Therefore, the ancients believed that the house must be designed in a square shape in order to achieve stability!

    The circle of the heavens represents the harmony of the heavens and emphasizes the law of harmonious cycles. This place is humane, it's about squareness, neutrality, and norms of behavior. One person is a "day."

    China's 5,000-year-old traditional culture has a long history, which is broad and profound.

    It implies harmony and freedom, and advocates the harmonious coexistence of the environment and people. The design pays attention to the "rules"; Freedom, the pursuit of creativity and imagination, does not follow "rules" when designing, does not like to be tied down! We are Chinese, and Chinese have their own culture and traditions.

    When designing, we must first make a simple and easy-to-learn design according to our own laws, and then absorb the advantages of Western design on this basis. Instead of blindly worshiping foreigners, I thought that Western design was so advanced, without thinking, I was engrossed, and finally there were international jokes such as "big pants" and "big trousers", which were fooled by Western designers!

    In addition, you must know that in ancient times, even people who valued reality and did not want to repair chains understood the traditional Chinese idea of "the unity of heaven and man".。The principles of "benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and faith" are derived. To be a human being is to obey, and there is also "kindness and kindness".

    evil has retribution". Lao Tzu's "Tao Te Ching" said: "People follow the place, the earth follows the sky, the sky follows the Tao, and the Tao follows nature."

    Dong Zhongshu of the Western Han Dynasty clearly said: "Heaven and man are one, and heaven and man are one." Every aspect of the daily life of the Chinese.

  15. Anonymous users2024-01-23

    The circle is essentially an explanation of the formation and operation of heaven and earth in the yin-yang system of the Book of Changes, and is the first of the hundred classics and the source of Chinese studies. Its ideological system believes that all things evolve according to the five elements of yin and yang, so all disciplines in ancient times had a system of thought of the five elements of yin and yang. "Shangshu Yaodian" said that when Yao treats the world at peace, what is the life of a person who loves the sky, its calendar is like the sun, moon and stars, and he should respect others.

    Later, He, Xizhong, He Zhong, and He Shu were assigned to the Quartet, which was the earliest theory and practice in the Heavenly Realm. Among them, it can be proved from the "Lotus Sutra" that the heavens are round, so there is no accurate understanding today, but a simple world view has been born. The earth refers to the horizon coordinate system, and the square refers to the direction or bearing, that is, the sub represents the north, the noon represents the south, the unitary represents the west, the base represents the east, and the twelve earthly branches, the ten heavenly stems, and the four hexagrams represent the twenty-four directions, which are constructed throughout the sun (360-degree circle).

    This is paradise. > ancients believed that the world was round, and the square of the circle was also the name of heaven and earth. Yuan is the study of Chinese Taoism changing with the times; Fang is the ideal realm of Chinese Confucian personality cultivation: "Wisdom should be round, and action should be right".

    The mutual tolerance of the parties and the complementarity of Confucianism and Taoism constitute the main spirit of Chinese traditional culture. The circle is the map of the heavens evolved from the innate gossip of the Book of Changes, that is, the circle map. Among them, the hexagram surrounded by the outside represents the movement of the sky, and the hexagram arranged in the middle square represents the movement of the earth.

    Heaven is primary, earth is secondary, heaven is yang, and earth is yin. The two induce each other to give rise to the universe.

    "The sky is round and the place is a manifestation of the yin and yang theory, and its essence is the map of the sky, which evolved from the innate eight trigrams, that is, the map of the round place of the sky. Among them, the numbers on the periphery represent the movement of the sky, and the numbers arranged in the middle square represent the movement of the earth. Among them, the sky is primary, the earth is secondary, the sky is yang, and the earth is yin.

    The two induced each other to produce the creation of all things in heaven and earth, in which man is the essence of heaven and earth. Therefore, it is regarded as the spirit of all things in heaven and earth, and can feel all things, and the most spiritual one.

    "The world is round, and the place is the universe", this is the understanding of the universe by the ancients. "Heaven" refers to the void and the real, and since there is no reference and square, it can be called "circle". "Earth" refers to a tangible color, and the difference in its position can be defined by thinking, so it can be called "square" instead of saying that the ground is square.

    In the process of understanding the universe in ancient times, the main methods were completely different from the empirical experimental methods of modern science. "Internal evidence" is the main method of understanding the universe in ancient times, and this method is to continuously strengthen the body's own energy according to a certain energy cycle pattern of human life, so as to achieve its sharper perception ability.

  16. Anonymous users2024-01-22

    It means that the sky is round, the earth is square, and the circle of the sky represents time, and the place represents space, which is a balance between motion and stillness.

  17. Anonymous users2024-01-21

    In fact, it refers to the surface of the earth, which is the ancient science's cognition of the universe, which is also a set of abstract world laws that they have summarized.

  18. Anonymous users2024-01-20

    It represents a direction, and this concept cannot be verified, because the ancient people did not know that the earth was rotating, and felt that the scene in the sky was constantly changing, and then a kind of cycle was formed.

  19. Anonymous users2024-01-19

    The Earth is round, and scientists have verified that the Earth is round.

  20. Anonymous users2024-01-18

    The earth is of course round, and it can be seen from the moon that the earth is round.

  21. Anonymous users2024-01-17

    Of course, the earth is round, but because technology was not very developed in ancient times, there was no way to verify it, and people observed it with the naked eye, so they thought that the earth was square.

  22. Anonymous users2024-01-16

    Of course, it is elliptical, because ancient people had less understanding of heaven and earth and the universe, so there is such a saying, in Magellan's time, it has been discovered that the earth is round.

  23. Anonymous users2024-01-15

    The earth is round, and although it may not seem obvious, it is indeed round. And the equator is slightly larger. It's not square at all.

  24. Anonymous users2024-01-14

    The earth is round. Moreover, the size of the earth is very large, and this view has been confirmed by many people, and then there was the voyage of Magellan.

  25. Anonymous users2024-01-13

    The earth is round, and because the earth is a sphere, it should also be round, and there is a scientific basis for this.

  26. Anonymous users2024-01-12

    There is a scientific basis for the fact that the Earth is round, and many galaxies are round, which may facilitate the movement of the Earth.

  27. Anonymous users2024-01-11

    The Earth is not round, nor square, but elliptical, and this has been recognized by scientists.

  28. Anonymous users2024-01-10

    It is oval, and this idea has been confirmed a long time ago, so that there can be circumnavigation around the world.

  29. Anonymous users2024-01-09

    Both the terms "heaven and earth are round" and "heaven and earth are round" exist. This is a conjecture of the ancients about the shape of heaven and earth, the ancients felt that the earth was always square because they walked on the ground, and they could see the sky on all sides and thought that the sky was round, so they had the conjecture of "the sky is round and the place is round". Modern man has proved that the heavens are not round but infinite, and the earth is round, so it can be called the heavens and the earth.

    The ancients summarized the law of energy change in the microscopic state as the "Five Luck and Six Qi Theory", which is used to measure the relationship between energy changes and time between heaven and earth, as well as the impact of this change on life on earth. This is what the ancients called "heavenly time", and the so-called heavenly time refers to the arrival of energy from the sky, which is the beginning of the corresponding season.

    Because this energy is reincarnated every 60 years, the cycle repeats, like a ring without end, so the ancients said "the sky is round", which is used to describe the characteristics of time. At the same time, when the ancients talked about directions, they used "all directions" to describe it, which was also called "place". "The sky is round and the place is round" is to talk about time and space, that is, to talk about the true face of the universe, which embodies the concept of time and space of the wisdom of our ancestors.

  30. Anonymous users2024-01-08

    It is also because after technological progress, people can go to more places in the world with more advanced technology and more abundant practices. In any case, the spirit of scientific exploration of the ancients is very worthy of our learning, and even if there are mistakes, they can continue to make progress through the practice of future generations, which is also a process of civilization progress.

  31. Anonymous users2024-01-07

    Because in ancient times, the range of human activities was very small, and the ground seen was flat and endless; The sky seen is like a cauldron that is upside down on the ground. So there is the saying "the sky is round and the place is round".

  32. Anonymous users2024-01-06

    In ancient times, people's productivity level was backward, scientific development was underdeveloped, and many natural phenomena could not be explained scientifically.

  33. Anonymous users2024-01-05

    In ancient times, the technology and tools for exploring the world were limited, and by eye observation, you could only see the horizon and could not see the arc of the earth.

  34. Anonymous users2024-01-04

    Because the science and technology in ancient times were relatively backward, people saw the sky covering the earth, so the heaven was said to be round and the earth was formed. It is believed that the heavens are covered. It was only later that scientific and technological advances overturned this theory.

  35. Anonymous users2024-01-03

    In ancient China, there were three kinds of "basic knowledge of the universe". It refers to - "Gaitian Theory", "Hun Tian Theory" and "Xuanye Theory". "Heaven and earth are round" is a concise arrangement of "Gaitian Theory", that is, it is often said that "Tianyuan (circle) is like a cover, and the region is like a remnant chess".

    "Gai Tian said" is the original "basic knowledge of the universe" of ancient Chinese people. According to the study of raw materials, it was determined that as early as the fifth millennium of the public year, the "Gaitian theory" had already been very sound.

    So far, there have been more than 6,000 years of the new period of the Hemudu site, excavated the Western Zhou Dynasty bronzes and patterns, clearly show the middle of the convex "Xuanji" under the "bucket-shaped" square face of the gods, I know that at that time according to the astronomical observation, the ancient people have long been proficient in the "Tianji" and "Beidou positioning system" parts and set up the "Tianru widow" or "cover" logical thinking ability.

    How ancient people identified the "round sky". The most important thing in ancient Chinese culture to observe the wonders of the heavens is to establish a coordinate point of "sky", which is what ancient people often called "the pole of heaven". "Lü's Spring and Autumn" cloud:

    The polestar travels with the sky, and the pole does not change. As an ancient Chinese culture on the map of the northern hemisphere, looking at the sky at night, it is obvious that you can look at the night sky in the northern region, and select the center point of the "Beidou positioning system" to focus on the operation of the "heavenly pole"; The focus is on the celestial regions within the "circle" drawn by the operation. In ancient times, it was called "Xuanji".

    In the ancient "cosmology", Xuanji was not only considered to be the importance of the "heavenly pole", but also the region of the yin that protruded in the middle.

    How ancient people identified "regions". Ancient Chinese culture thought that "heaven" was like a "widowhood" or a "cover" buckled on the earth, so shouldn't the ground also be ring-shaped? The definition of "region" of the ancients was not based on visual observation - observing the appearance of the ground, in ancient times, was much more valuable than observing the hardships of the heavens.

    The ancient people assessed the ground as square, but in fact it was all based on the observation of the celestial wonders, and the correction time of the phenomena - that is, the precise measurement of east, west, north and south according to the establishment of the "equinox".

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